The song is aimed at another musician , or at least a type of musician represented by "Robin" who Kevin Rowland is on record as saying wasn't a specific person (although there is Robin Campbell of UB40, contemporaries of Dexys from Birmingham). Rowland is calling out Robin as fake, willing to talk about politics and quote intellectual and artistic influences that would impress magazines such as the NME, but not willing to actually do anything about the causes they claim to care about. The line " If youre so anti-fashion, why not wear flares" is about the kind of bands who would claim not be following fashion but in reality did not doing anything to really stand out - in 1980 weearing flares would be just about the most unfashionable thing you could do.
The song is aimed at another musician , or at least a type of musician represented by "Robin" who Kevin Rowland is on record as saying wasn't a specific person (although there is Robin Campbell of UB40, contemporaries of Dexys from Birmingham). Rowland is calling out Robin as fake, willing to talk about politics and quote intellectual and artistic influences that would impress magazines such as the NME, but not willing to actually do anything about the causes they claim to care about. The line " If youre so anti-fashion, why not wear flares" is about the kind of bands who would claim not be following fashion but in reality did not doing anything to really stand out - in 1980 weearing flares would be just about the most unfashionable thing you could do.